Aftermath
by goldenfiligree
Summary: What happens to Re-L and Vincent after Romdeau collapses? What of Ergo Proxy? Rated M for later chapters
1. Shortage

**Re-L**

Even after the fall of Romdo I kept my distance from Vincent Law. He was my only companion aside from the two AutoReivs that accompanied us on our journey to find other dome cities that could be inhabited by humans. After the collapse of the only place in the world I'd known and the death of thousands of citizens in the dome, I decided to continue my search for proxies. After my encounters with several outside Romdo, I knew that Daedalus Yumeno's research was not something that could be shoved aside. I took my own information that I gathered from studying Vincent and collected it in a tattered journal.

So far from what I could comprehend, proxies were man-made gods that were to be saviors for the human race. But now that Ergo Proxy, the agent of death was lurking behind the eyes of Vincent Law, I felt as though our kind would never survive.

"Re-L?" I heard his quiet voice ask me as I took inventory of our food stock, "We haven't had any wind again in a few days, but that forest over there may have some supplies? Firewood or something maybe?"

I looked over to the wooded area, remembering the last time I had ventured into dense trees. An AutoReiv tried to kill me and that's where I had lost Iggy. "If you think there are supplies, go ahead and check. I'll stay here and keep a lookout for anything suspicious."

His green eyes flashed a little with something animalistic. _Are you afraid of the woods now?_ A sinister voice seemed to be asking from the back of Vincent's mind. I tried not to think about it and turned back to my notebook. I looked at the dwindling pages and hoped that the wind would come soon, lest I had to start keeping track of things on the walls of the Rabbit like some Neanderthal race that predated a time of proxies and AutoReivs.

"Pino wants to come with Vincent!" The young, child-like AutoReiv exclaimed, tugging on Vincent's orange suit.

"Hehe, Pino if you'd like you can keep me company. It'd be nice not to be alone in the woods. You never know what you can find."

"Would you be needing my assistance, Vincent?" Kristeva asked him, her hands daintily folded and a scowling look was forever imprinted on her face.

"Only if you'd like to."

"Very well then," Kristeva looked at Pino. "I shall accompany you in case Pino requires any assistance."

I watched the three of them walk over to the trees and disappear in to the undergrowth. The trees looked like teeth swallowing them whole. I watched as Pino ran back and waved. "Bye Re-L!" Pino called as she hopped up and down. The ears of her bunny suit flopped on her shoulders.

It wasn't very often I got this kind of alone time, so I took advantage of it. I stripped my clothes off and lay in bed, ready for an extra nap. I closed my eyes and watched the random floating colors stream through a reddish-black background. Green circles and red dots appeared with blue stripes like lightening behind my eyelids. I wondered if other people saw those things too, or if it was just my version of my skin. I tried to conjure memories of when I was a little girl in Romdo, how even then Grandfather had Daedalus watching over me like a pet. I remembered Daedalus in different times of his life. He had always been groomed to be a doctor. It was the purpose for which he was bred, just as my own purpose was determined for me before I was born.

I could barely remember a time when his hands didn't wear gloves. He was a little shrimp then, his cheeks sunken in and his hair had been clipped closer to his head than it was when he became a doctor. I remember having a slight crush on him, kissing his lips at the tender age of five. His hands shook and his mouth trembled against mine. That was when I started to find him annoying.

Years later, that kiss had transformed into a sort of foundation for his incessant infatuation with me, which I used to my advantage whenever I could, until he made that proxy which bore my face. If the circumstances had been in my favor I would have shot him.

In my mind Daedalus morphed into Vincent. Their dark hair lay in almost a similar cut, and the slant of Daedalus' eyes turned into the cold eyes that Vincent had grown since he found out the truth of Ergo Proxy. I floated through scenes that had happened between Vincent and I, our encounters in Romdo, when the Proxy first appeared in my apartment and fought with Monad to the memory of kissing him and stealing the gun.

My stomach felt a slight twinge in it at the thought of his lips on mine. I thought of the night after Romdo had collapsed, three months from the current day. I had cried for the loss of everything. Blue and black smears from my makeup caked my face and Vincent wiped them away. He had held me that entire night as I cried myself to sleep thinking of Daedalus and Grandfather. I thought of Pino, the AutoReiv with a soul who had just lost her father. All the citizens I had interviews over the years, the people who had nameless faces all appeared before me without stories and backgrounds, but I still cried for the loss of them.

I felt as though it was my weakest moment. The night was a blur of tears and Vincent's hand stroking my hair. I cried on him because he was the only one I had left. I cried on him even though he was the reason the world was falling apart.

Memories turned into a conclave of disjointed dreams and my mind brought me to wooded terrain and the monster that lurked behind the mask that was Vincent Law.

**Vincent**

When we returned with armloads of mostly dry wood, I found Re-L in her underwear sleeping on the bed. I placed the wood next to the door and I watched her silently, thinking that she was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. I leaned over her, wondering if she would kill me if I had I kissed her in that instant. _Yes._

I backed up and grabbed some buckets and pans, looking for anything that could capture water. Dark clouds started to appear when we were in the jungle, so we decided to head back before we had any amount of time to find food.

There was wind blowing, but not enough to get the Rabbit to run. And in any case, the wind was pulling the wrong way, going back to the direction of Romdo. I sighed heavily as Kristeva set the pot I normally cooked beans in at my feet.

:"It would be a good thing for you to catch up on sleep too, Vincent Law. I will watch out for Pino."

"Thanks Kristeva," I said as I clamored back into the hull of the Rabbit.

Re-L's undershirt had ridden up her skin, exposing the under flesh of her left breast. The creamy skin looked almost like the flesh of a white peach, velvety and soft. I couldn't remember the last time I had felt or tasted a peach, but the flavor became reminiscent in my mouth. _Would Re-L taste as sweet?_ a dark voice that was not my own asked. I thought I had banished him during the fall of Romdo, but it seemed I had been suppressing him inside myself just as I had with Ergo Proxy. I hadn't told Re-L this for fear that she would take Kristeva and Pino and abandon me is some desolate area where I wouldn't be able to survive.

_You're a proxy, this fear you have is needless._

I shook my head, coughing as I did so. I didn't want to admit that Proxy One was slowly tainting my mind like a demon. I figured maybe I could suppress him just as I had before, but the longer I was confined to the Rabbit the more and more I felt like my mind was being dismembered by Proxy One.

"You better not be getting sick," Re-L's voice spat like venom. "It would be a waste of energy and supplies to nurse yourself back to health. Or can proxies even _get_ sick?"

I huffed a breath and stripped to my boxers before going into the bathroom. When I was completely naked I toweled off and placed on some dry clothes. I wondered when the next time we would see another city was again. Even my suit was getting worn enough that it couldn't be repaired. It was tiring, how often I thought of a new place. All it meant was a new proxy to deal with, another place that would end up destroyed by Ergo Proxy, agent of death.

"Vincent," Re-L called, bringing me out of my reverie, "what are you doing in there?"

"Dressing," I informed her.

"Then what's taking so long? It's not like you wear a bra."


	2. Take Over

**Note: I don't own Ergo Proxy.**

**Re-L**

It had been a week before we got enough wind to move, even with the small gusts that brought us rain water to drink. Our rations were almost gone; water almost depleted when the storm came. I had woken up just as I always had with one exception. It felt like we were moving. I continued my regular routine and finally came out of the Rabbit's hull. "Why didn't you wake me up?" I asked Vincent.

"I tried to wake you up, but Vince said no. Then Kristeva told me to listen to him and we've been collecting rain for drinking. Here!" the child AutoReiv explained while holding up a cooking pot filled with water.

"Thanks," I said with a smirk. I hated to admit it, but the brat of a robot was growing on me. Although she was no replacement for Iggy, she was starting to fill the void that his absence had created. I grabbed the pot from her and took it over to the funnel system that held our potable water. She watched as I carefully poured the water, making sure not to spill a drop.

"Hey Re-L?"

"Yeah?"

She smiled at me widely and turned around "Only 42.63 units 'til we reach the next city!" She rocked back and forth on her heels with her hands positioned behind her. "And you know what else?"

"What?" I asked.

"Kristeva says that she'll be able to scan the area to see if there are any other humans when we get close enough.

I managed to plaster a smile on my face, even though this was the exact line she had fed me at the last two towns where we had only found a few dying humans that didn't want to join us. What person would want to join two AutoReivs, a human, and a monster to find other humans? I was part of the group and it sounded odd in my own head. "Good, I need some new clothes," I told her, trying to make light of the situation. Pino turned around, her smile grew to double its size.

"Pino needs something new too!" she told me. Kristeva joined her side.

"If you'd like I can prepare a detailed list of essential supplies we need along with a list of tools that may be required if the Rabbit breaks down?"

I nodded my response and looked over to Vincent. There were a few holes in the orange uniform he acquired in Romdeau that he had yet to patch. I looked at the many rips and snags it had adorned in the past year I had seen him. It was time that he got some new clothes as well. Plus, the outfit was hard to wash in such a small facility. "Vincent, you'll need to look for something else to wear as well. You'll also need to find a jacket since we're heading north."

I wasn't even sure if my jacket with the fur-lined hood was enough to contend with the negative temperatures of the northern lands.

"Are you sure you want to head that direction? It seems like we would find more people going south, right? To escape the cold?"

I scowled. "We _came _from the south."

"It wasn't that far south, Re-L."

I was annoyed with him again. It seemed I was always annoyed with Vincent these days. He was always trying to change my mind, contradict my wishes. As he turned to face me I saw that hint of something sinister in his eyes again, something telling me that Ergo Proxy was not too far from coming out. Perhaps it was our proximity to the next city or maybe it _was_ the way I carried myself. Even though Vincent was the one who was on the outside, in the conscious world, I felt that maybe on a deeper level Ergo Proxy could snap into action and overtake Vincent. I hoped this irrational fear wouldn't come to fruition.

**Vincent**

There was no one around when we made it to the city of Taketna in the north. It was a city of snow-covered huts and fur-laden animals, but no other life was present. The cold was too much for Pino and Kristeva, whose metallic bodies moved like molasses through the arctic tundra.

"I don't think there's anyone here, Re-l. Not even a Proxy would be able to live in these conditions."

She cocked an eyebrow and vindictively asked, "Would you like to test that theory? Or would you rather just pick up supplies?"

I bowed my head and picked up a dead animal carcass. It's antlers dragged in the snow leaving marks like someone clawing through soil. I grimaced at the thought and swallowed my vomit.

_Can't handle the dead?_ The body seemed to ask me in Proxy One's voice. My body froze, as a shadow in the distance seemed to loom closer and closer to our whereabouts. I picked up my pace, as I struggled with the unfamiliar beast.

"Vincent," Re-L called from the path to the Rabbit, "What is that?"

The presence moved with amazing speed, closer and closer to us. It looked like a bear, but more humane. I numb hands started to shake in fear and I tried my damnedest to move closer to the safety of the Rabbit. "Vincent, it's getting close!" She screamed._ Why is she standing there? _I asked myself.

_Fear is coursing through her body. She is paralyzed. Shall I come out to play with this Proxy or do you think you can handle it yourself?_

Fighting back the urge to scream, the urge to let Proxy One out was a tenuous battle that I was losing. I could feel the muscles in my arms contract and the tone of my skin turn colors, the edges of my vision blurred. No longer was I in control as I made my way o Re-L.

**Proxy One**

My cage within the mind of Vincent Law was not a place I enjoyed being confined to. Suppressed by a weakling who could barely fend for himself, our story was like that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. I waited in the darkness, watching the sap's every move. I listened to his every thought, from worries about me taking over to his lusting thoughts for Re-L Mayer. Our presence within each other sickened me. I wanted to immure him like he did me on a daily basis and when I saw the Proxy through his green eyes; I knew it was my chance.

I tore through the bars of his mind as though they were mere paper, burst through locked doors and long hallways to the great hall of his mind. With what felt like a brief fit of insanity I reached with a grotesquely long arm to the chair in which his conscious self sat. There he was prisoner, my fingers gripping him like chairs; nails acting like padlocks that he could not get at.

A cackle left my throat and roared like a lion. I could see his form wracked with sweat, drenching the undershirt he wore. "Don't piss yourself, Vincent Law." His name ripped out like thunder and he struggled against me. Finally my legs caught up to my arms and I was sitting next to his bound form. "Pleasure to see you, Vincent."

The putrid, human image of myself watched in terror as he felt his limbs grow and stretch. His physical for was being tormented as I took his place. A large smile crept onto my face as I watched Re-L's horrified form come into view.

"No," she uttered as I stepped in front of her.

"How are you, Re-L?" I asked her whorishly caked face seemed to grow whiter as I stepped mere inches from her face. Her eyes started to water and I felt a strange twinge, something like pain._ Monad._ "You better run before she gets you." I felt metal against my chest and looked down to see the gun with the modified bullet that doctor had made. "Monad—" I uttered, not understanding why I was feeling grief.

Re-L darted to the side and I watched as she squeezed the trigger. It was a few moments in passing that I finally realized what she was shooting at. I turned to see the beastly fangs come out like sharp knives from under the mask the other Proxy wore. I rushed forward with my claws, as the bullet pierced her arm. She stopped her movements and grappled her arm before coming at us with full speed. I blocked her path to Re-L and shoved my hand into her stomach.

Torn flesh and Proxy blood clung to the tips of my fingers, splashed onto the front of the fabric that was draped over me. The body pushed forward, its organs squelched against my forced entry and caused her to moan. I pushed upward into her chest cavity, feeling her lungs. My fingers closed around an organ, soft and slick. It throbbed erratically. With greatest of ease I clenched my fist. An audible popping noise echoed in my ears and a sense of calm dispersed through my presence.

The anger and bloodlust that had been pent up within me withered like a rose. It was in that second that I let my guard down and felt the rip of something vital. The life force substance on my hands changed into tight bindings, my surroundings were purged into darkness. I looked over to see my shadow standing free from his position in the chair, looking out to the scene that I had created.

**Re-L**

The taste of stomach acid rose into my throat and stung my senses. It was painful and kept my stomach lurching, or maybe it was the way everything looked to be covered in blood. Ergo Proxy stood, peering at the blood and guts covering his hand. _He's going to kill me next,_ I thought as I tried to move my legs. My form felt heavier as the pungent smell of innards wafted towards me. My eyes grew wide, but the edges of my vision were turning white. I heard footsteps crunching in the snow and coming towards me as I fell.

When I came to, I was in the rabbit huddled under a blanket, pelts of fur and my jacket. I was still shivering and screaming for Vincent to get away from me. I had seen him turn into Ergo Proxy before, but the monster that he had changed into was something far worse than the agent of Death.

"R-re-L," he stammered as he tried to approach me once more. "You need to eat something. Here, I made some soup." I looked at the chunks of meat floating around in the steaming broth. The sight of pieces made the smell of blood come back. The acrid taste built up in my mouth even though there was no bile.

"Get that away from me!" I screamed in his face. I didn't correlate the smacking sound and Vincent's deep groan with the action of my hands movement. I opened my eyes to see him on his back, the bowl of food lying on the ground causing broken ceramic to mingle with the meat.

Vincent squinted. "Re-L? Are you all right?"

"Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Clean that mess up."


	3. Difference

**Vincent**

Even though she was acting like herself, I thought that there was something definitely off about Re-L. For one thing, she seemed fearful of me. Did the monster lurking inside of me have a way of following me around even when boxed up? Yes, Proxy One is a part of me, but he also _isn't_ me.

I picked up the broken bowl and cleaned up the spilled contents as best I could. Re-L had already gone back outside into the cold where she would rather be than with the quasi-monster she felt I was becoming.

_She's got a right to worry._

I didn't want to believe that, couldn't. I was sure I could control, for the most part at least, when and how often Proxy One would come out. After a few mindless hours of steering the rabbit, I retired to sleep. In my mind there were places that he'd lock me out of, memories I had no hope to recover. _They aren't yours anyway._

It felt wrong, my mind fighting his, but they were the same. They were an ever-entwined expanse of knowledge that we both carried, but he had more access; was gaining more access to parts of myself that I didn't want him to touch.

Dreams were a shared experience as well. They were a congruent and tangible in my mind, dreams he had of slicing through flesh and bones and glowing eyes, of my days trapped as an immigrant in Romdeau. I would look in a mirror; see his face instead of my own. Other times I would see myself lurking, _watching_ everyone else and realize that in that instance I was Proxy One watching myself watching Re-L.

**Proxy One**

Night is a hard time for the ill minded. We sit up thinking until our vision goes black. He can't tell but I'm still awake. Even with his eyes open, his mind functioning like a machine, but I'm still there listening to his every thought. _He_ is the one who locks these things away. _He_ is the one who keeps our shared memories at bay behind lock and key. I watch him lust after Re-L the way we used to pine for Monad in the weakened state we were in while leaving Mosk.

He doesn't realize how integrated we truly are, how much of myself is truly him. _He _was _my_ creation. If either of us should be locked and forgotten about it should be him. I'm still unaware though of how this happened, how I came back into this 'human' body after I spent so much time outside of it in Romdeau.

There is something to be said about how strong his will is; his yearning to be a separate entity from that which I am. It's quite difficult to obtain your physical self when sharing it with a monster. I think Re-L can see that I'm there though. I can taste that fear emanating off her body. It's different from the scent she used to carry when she was first introduced to Vincent Law: putrid cinnamon morphing into the hide of a decaying animal.

The taste was intoxicating, even in our dreams. So many dreams in which she would be tossed naked among the cot in the rabbit, Vincent's and her clothes strew across the floor where I could see flashes of her naked skin from under him. He always seemed like a bottom type of guy to me, and Re-L would be too dominant to let him have his way with her, no matter how drunk he'd get her in the next town or ever. Re-L's will would have to be crushed first.

The first thing I notice in this dream: Re-L watching me—or maybe I am Vincent—from the opposite side of the rabbit. She doesn't say a word as I slip our arms around her waist. I must be me because that terrified look is back on her face, giving me a rush of adrenaline and a slight feeling of vertigo. Am hungry, hungrier than I have been in a while.

**Re-L**

At first I didn't notice the silent change that went through Vincent as he slept. His limbs grew, skin turned darker and his eyes: those soft, docile looks that gave away his love for me were darker and full of death and a potent greed.

I could feel my body go slack as he gripped me by the waist. All I could do was stare at that face: sharper angles and a dangerous grin. The similarities between Vincent and Ergo Proxy—but this wasn't Ergo Proxy. No mask, no sadness emanating from his person. Who or whatever this being was, was dangerous.

"Do you think Vincent would mind me taking sustenance from your flesh?"

His teeth, that hungry gaze and the way he seemed to reek of something—decay?—all sickened me.

"What have you done with Vincent?"

"We are the same. Vincent, Ergo Proxy, the agent of death; we are all the same. And you, so like Monad, whom we cherished so much are the sustenance we crave."

I felt tears burn into my eyes, just like that night when Ergo Proxy stalked me in my home and destroyed my boring life. His large fingers careened my cheek, leaving a scratch on the apple of my right cheek. I winced as he brought his face close to mine. His long tongue touched the wound.

"Your blood tastes sweet, Re-L."


End file.
